It was inevitable that most of the Catholic Left, in any confrontation between the Church and Obama Caesar, would side with the Messiah from Chicago. A petition making the rounds indicates how quickly this process has played out.
Today the Obama administration announced an important regulation that will protect the conscience rights of religious organizations and ensure that all women have access to contraception without a co-payment. We applaud the White House for listening carefully to the concerns raised by religious leaders on an issue that has provoked heated and often misinformed debate. This ruling is a major victory for religious liberty and women’s health. President Obama has demonstrated that these core values do not have to be in conflict.
Specifically, this new regulation guarantees that no religiously affiliated institution will have to pay for services that violate its moral beliefs or even refer employees for this coverage. Instead, if a woman’s employer is an objecting university, hospital or other religious institution, her insurer will be required to offer her coverage at no cost. This is a sensible, common-ground solution.
In recent days, sound bites and divisive rhetoric have too often pitted the faith community against sound science and public health.The previous regulations caused an unnecessary conflict between the administration, the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. We are encouraged that the Obama administration has developed a substantive solution that addresses the concerns of the many constituencies involved. We look forward to bringing the same level of passion displayed in this debate to other pressing moral issues that face our nation.
Sister Simone Campbell Executive Director NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Institute Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Douglas W. Kmiec United States Amb. (ret) Chair, Constitutional and Human Rights Law, Pepperdine University
Terrence W. Tilley Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology Chair, Theology Department Fordham University
Rev. Paul Crowley SJ Jesuit Community Professor of Theology Santa Clara University
Nicholas P. Cafardi Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Duquesne University School of Law
Vincent J. Miller Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture University of Dayton
Kristin Heyer Associate Professor, Religious Studies Santa Clara University
Gerald J. Beyer Associate Professor of Theology Saint Joseph’s University
Stephen Schneck Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies Catholic University of America
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies Harvard Divinity School Cambridge, MA
John Inglis Chair and Professor of Philosophy Cross-appointed to Religious Studies University of Dayton
Bradford E. Hinze Professor of Theology Fordham University Bronx, NY
David DeCosse Director of Campus Ethics Programs Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Santa Clara UniversitY
Todd Whitmore Associate Professor of Theology University of Notre Dame
Sr. Paulette Skiba Professor of Religious Studies Clarke University
Michael E. Lee Associate Professor of Theology Fordham University
Tobias Winright Associate Professor of Theological Ethics Saint Louis University
Richard R. Gaillardetz McCarthy Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology Boston College
Christopher Pramuk Assistant Professor of Theology Xavier University
Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite Professor of Theology Chicago Theological Seminary
The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin Immediate Past President National Council of Churches
Lisa Sharon Harper Director of Mobilizing Sojourners
Rev. Anne Howard Executive Director The Beatitudes Society
Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
Rev. Richard Cizik President New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
Dr. David Gushee Board Chair and Co-Founder New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
Rev. Alexander Sharp Executive Director Protestants for the Common Good
Dr. Sharon E. Watkins General Minister and President Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada
Rev. Dr. Ken Brooker Langston Director Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN)
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner President Skinner Leadership Institute
Linda Bales Todd Director of Women’s Advocacy General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
Jim Winkler General Secretary General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
To absolutely no one’s surprise I am sure, Richard Rich’s Douglas Kmiec’s name appears third from the top. The Catholic Left, always ready, in most cases, to render everything unto Caesar if the Caesar in question has a D after his name.
Any people in this list who are Catholic should be publicly excommunicated.
These are brilliant and well-educated people but you realize that they’re not the magisterium.
Oh I understand that Mike. I am not at all certain that the Catholic signers of this piece of tripe understand that however.
These brilliant and well educated people have “been done educated into imbecility.” I realize that’s a quote from Fr. Corapi, and he sadly fell off the wagon as it were. Nevertheless, in this case, it’s correct.
Our first acts of civil disobedience should be protesting at the DNC in Charlotte this September.
They know what to think.
They do not know how to think.
I’m imagining Tokyo Rose propaganda broadcasts . . .
Peace and justice!
It’s okay to lie and cheat to advance peace and justice.
And, to provide political support to those killing 45,000,000 unborn humans . . .
Peace and justIce!
They are not educated.
They are indoctrinated.
Donald, I should have said, “we realize that they’re not the magisterium.”
Paul, that’s an oldie but a goodie.
T Shaw,
I stand – er, sit – corrected.
BTW, while I have mentioned this before, perhaps it bears repeating. I know of a very intelligent man who runs a pro-nuclear energy blog site and he is thoroughly liberal (which is oxymoronic given that liberals have fought nuclear energy tooth and nail for 40+ years). He (and most of his readers) know far more about science, engineering, and technology than I ever will. But they BELIEVE in that godless man of sin, Obama, hook, line and sinker. They look at us as hate criminals. The division between “us” and “them” couldn’t be greater. They twist around history to say what they want it to mean. They hate Israel, love Iran, and object to everything the US has done in world affairs since WW II. They openly despise the Church, and where they claim to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it isn’t holiness and righteousness that matter to them but what T. Shaw pointed out: “peace and justice” nonsense. They won’t look at the actual statistics regarding the real reasons for abortion given at Priests for Life or the USCCB web sites. They won’t even consider that life begins at conception, physical evidence be damned. The obviousness that homosexual behavior is contrary to natural law is sneered at. And these are SCIENTISTS of the highest order! I just don’t get it. I never will. How can someone be so smart – far, far smarter than many others at this blog, myself included – and be so abysmally deceived? Despair is a sin and I am sinful.
🙁
Great! Where do I sign? Second question, why is this pen drawing blood from my hand?
This ruling ….
That says it all, doesn’t it? Presidents are not supposed to rule; kings and Caesars are.
I don’t doubt that these are smart folks (both the ones who signed and the one to which Paul alludes). For that reason, I find it very hard to accept that they are duped, indoctrinated, etc. What I do not find hard to accept is that they deliberately ignore these teachings because they simply want contraception/abortion (or whatever). They know; they just don’t care.
Now, this “when does life begin thingy” hits close to home.
Our first grandchild is scheduled to make her debut in early July.
Our daughter-in-law has emailed us sonogram pictures since early as God Almighty began forming in her mother’s womb our granddaughter.
That is clearly a human on those pictures.
Re: the sad social justice crowd. It’s not me. I know next to nothing. My education is clearly lacking. It’s St. Augustine. He dealt with such error in the early 400’s anno domini Rome.
“The only evils these people recognize are having to endure hunger, disease, and murder. It is as though man’s greatest good were to have everything good, except himself.”
I sincerely believe there is an emotional disorder that transcends intelligence or level of education, wherein the victim has an underlying sense of insecurity, bordering on phobia, necessitating a strong political figure in which to invest. This insecurity then blinds the victim to inconsistencies or outright contradictions in his or her belief system, making the inherent synthesis imbalanced and objectively invalid.
It may be due to lack of a strong father-figure in youth. Perhaps Dad was there, and even loving, but lacked principle and steadfastness. It may be that, as they grew and were being ‘taught,’ that there were no teachers or other intellectual figures of authority that drew out the aspects of critical thinking necessary to make rational decisions that all follow common principle in logical order.
Regardless of cause, it is quite evident that a foundation of concept and process that produces ideas of a stripe in one area but contradictory ideas elsewhere exists. There needs to be an object within which to rationalize that inequality, so that it can be contained, and that object is then The Leader, who spins fact and fancy into a complex web of duplicitous confusion, allowing the imbalanced person the ability to simply “follow the leader” instead of confronting the intellectual contention within.
Contradiction is a rock in the shoe of the critical mind and it will be ejected when it becomes intolerable. That such an ejection is not happening in the minds of people like the above signatories, it leads me to believe that they are in fact just stable enough to retain positions of influence, but would crumble if made to explain such inconsistencies in a logical, orderly fashion. Of course that leads to the “subjective truth” tripe that the Left falls upon when challenged, and that’s another conversation.
I agree that insecurity and inferiority feelings are the culprits– these are very bright capable people and as we continue to seek the way to evangelize them we need to respect their intellect and their will to do the good– teachers know demeaning a pupil doesn’t work, but building on what is good and enlarging it does–
we need not to polarize more within our church… and cause our cause to fail– But instead find a way to haul them into the boat (barque) -highlighting contradictions while respecting their intellectual commitment to truth might be a way to do that
ANYONE that supports Obama does NOT support being Catholic, or even Christian.
As I keep stating Where is the Christ in his action? You cannot claim to be Catholic if you are willing to compromise the teachings of the Church, the mandates of the Pope, or the teachings of the Bible. Murder is Murder. no matter what name you give it. Sin is sin no matter how you wish to wrap it. The devil comes in many forms. Sins provides many options. If a criminal was coming to rob you would he ask for in invitation to take your possessions? Your soul is open for the taking once you close it to the will of God!
Half of the list doesn’t claim to be Catholic.
The half claiming to be Catholic here replace Teachings of the Church/objective truth with satanic opinions. That, by definition (look it up, Doogie), is heresy.
Christ did not come among us to save us from suffering or to create Heaven on Earth.
Jesus Christ came to save us from our sins, and by His Life, Death and Resurrection to purchase for us the rewards of eternal life.
I see a couple of them have “S.J.” in their handles. Every one on the list ought to put “S.J.” behind their name: “Society of Judas.”
While there is time, they must repent, confess, do penance, amend their lives, and through good works glorify God.
Otherwise, I’m pretty sure none on the list will be getting into Heaven.
Well indoctrinated liberals perhaps but brilliant no. Brilliant is when Churchill pithily grasped the criminal folly of the Kaiser:
“The Germans took a somber decision. Upon the western front they had from the beginning used the most terrible means of offense at their disposal. They had employed poison gas on the largest scale and had invented the ‘Flammenwerfer.’ Nevertheless, it was with a sense of awe that they turned upon Russia the most grisly of weapons. They transported Lenin in a sealed train like a plague bacillus from Switzerland into Russia.”
Anyone who has thought about this knows that the HHS compromise is nothing but ‘plague bacillus’, even worse than the original requirement, in that it will destroy the moral integrity of the Catholic Church in the US, infecting everything she touches. This is Pharisaic at its worst – the Catholic Church does not accept birth-control and knows that abortion is murder – but is willing to look the other way as insurers, PP and Warren Buffett keep the muck off her hypocritical hands. Obama must be counting on a lot of stupid Catholics.
so I guess my idea about trying to evangelize the Catholic Left is right out. : /
Some lovely groups represented on that list: Sojourners, NETWORK, Evangelical Partnership, DJAN. These are alynsky progeny and closely working with the DP. I trust they are not receiving CCHD funding but would be curious.
Paul, do you remember this Prayer?,,”….I thank You, Father for hiding these things to the learned and revealing them to mere children…..”. “….The Wisdom of God is Foolishness to the World…” These Truths were given to us 2000+ ago and they sure ring true today from what I have just read in this Post.
Who was the first “social justice” Christian?
In other words, who was the first follower of Christ turned his back on the salvation of souls and gave precedence to a worldly agenda?
Perhaps the answer to T Shaw’s question is in John 12:1-7:
1* Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. 4* But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii * and given to the poor?” 6* This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. 7* Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. 8 The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”